An edited-down version of the controversial BBC1 "Crowngate" documentary picked up the US ABC network's highest rating for its 20/20 current affairs strand for five years on Monday night, March 3.

UK independent production company RDF edited down its five-part British series, Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work, into a two-hour special entitled The Royal Family, which aired as a 20/20 news magazine show special on Monday night on ABC from 9pm.

The programme, hosted by US TV veteran Barbara Walters, was the night's top-rated show on any network among the key demographics of 18- to 49-year-olds and 25- to 54-year-olds, with a total audience of 14.1 million viewers.

ABC's royal family special resoundingly beat Fox's two-hour series finale of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - currently showing on Virgin1 in the UK - which averaged 8 million viewers.

The 20/20 special drew more overall viewers than any edition of the ABC news magazine show since a February 2003 report on troubled pop star Michael Jackson, produced by UK company Granada and presented by Martin Bashir.

RDF's royal series launched with 6.7 million viewers on BBC1 in November.

ABC found itself caught up in the row over the BBC's royal series after it was one of the foreign buyers to which RDF showed a wrongly edited sequence of the Queen at a television sales market in Cannes.

RDF creative director Stephen Lambert admitted wrongly editing the footage, which showed the Queen storming out of a photoshoot when she was actually walking in, after it was shown to journalists in the UK at a BBC1 press launch in July last year.